George Gervin's Afro
06-27-2005, 04:26 PM
Future glowing for Finalists
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
It took seven games to separate the two best teams in the league. It'll take a lot longer to settle the debate about which team has the better future.
That's because the answer might actually be: Both.
It's true. Extended glory is in the forecast in San Antonio and Detroit. These franchises share more than a team-first, defense-next mindset. They've also managed their rosters so adroitly that it'll be years before either one has to worry about a star player defecting in free agency.
So we hope you had no issues with seven games of Spurs vs. Pistons. Chances are it wasn't the last such Finals, as the following breakdowns suggest:
San Antonio
Tim Duncan is 29. Manu Ginobili turns 28 next month. They're not exactly Shaq and Kobe, but they're in their primes and quite happily married. They also share room to improve. Yikes.
AP
Any discussion of the future in San Antonio starts with No. 21.
"You can call it whatever you want - you guys are the press," said David Robinson, a courtside witness Thursday night when Duncan and Ginobili won their first title without him. "But I call it pretty good."
The mere presence of those two as a base, along with an even better tandem in the support positions -- coach Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford -- should keep the Spurs in contention for the next several seasons. Especially because Pop and R.C. have already proven that they can replenish a roster quickly.
Duncan is the only holdover from the 1999 title-winners and has since won two more rings. Ginobili, Tony Parker and Bruce Bowen, incidentally, are the only 2003 championship alumni besides No. 21.
"It's a great feeling," Duncan said. "In years past, we've lost six, seven, eight, nine guys in a year and rebuilt. I think we've really got a core here that we're in love with. . . . We have years to (grow together), and I think that's the greatest feeling in the world."
Three clear causes for concern were raised during this title run. It's four, actually, if you count the scary emergence of the Phoenix Suns' Amare Stoudemire, but let's focus on the three specific to the Spurs.
1. Parker's third straight postseason nosedive has to be worrisome, especially since his contract is nearly $15 million richer than Ginobili's.
2. No less troubling is the knowledge that Robert Horry can't have many more years left at his current playoff level. It's good and bad news that Horry, at nearly 35, was San Antonio's third-most dependable postseason performer. Or no worse than fourth behind defensive ace Bowen, who's 34 but sure doesn't look it.
3. It's also evident that the Spurs' perimeter shooting has dipped without Steve Kerr and Stephen Jackson, as Brent Barry alone couldn't fill the void.
Not that the Spurs will let us see any concern. For starters, they know that every team needs better shooters. If there were shooters to just go out and get, you know they would. It's one of the toughest voids to fill.
Buford, furthermore, recently strengthened his front line significantly with the trade-deadline acquisition of Nazr Mohammed, who looks far more promising as a partner for Duncan than Rasho Nesterovic. And because the Spurs didn't award Nesterovic an outrageous contract when they signed him to take the first swipe at succeeding Robinson, Buford will probably be able to move Nesterovic.
The backup option is waiving Nesterovic later this summer via the one-time mulligan teams are expected to receive -- soon to be known as the Allan Houston Rule -- as part of the new collective bargaining agreement. In that scenario, Nesterovic would receive the remaining $30 million-plus on his contract without any of that money counting in luxury-tax calculations.
Either way, Rasho's rotation spot is eventually going to Luis Scola, another Argentine second-round draft pick (like Manu) who will undoubtedly bolster the Spurs' frontcourt unit. The only uncertainty is whether San Antonio will be able to sign Scola in time for next season.
Scola is only 6-8, but he's considered the world's best power forward not playing in the NBA. He also seems to have a bit of the Ginobili Gene, winning pretty much everywhere he's been.
Yet if the price to extricate Scola from his Spanish League contract is too high, pursuing free-agent forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim is a strong possibility. San Antonio can't sign both, because one or the other is bound to command most or all of its $4.9 million mid-level exception. Sources close to Reef say he'd love to come to San Antonio after missing the playoffs in each of his nine seasons, but he's also likely to be chased hard by several East contenders: Miami, Washington, New Jersey and Cleveland, just to name four.
The challenge for the Spurs, then, is getting an early read on the feasbility of bringing Scola in. If complications ensure, they'll have to quickly proceed to outside free agents.
The down-the-road challenge, meanwhile, is assessing Parker's progress and potential. Going against the stronger Chauncey Billups was by no means easy, but Parker, after four seasons, can still seem shaky on the playoff stage.
The Frenchman still has plenty of time, at 23, to solidify his spot as the third mainstay of the Spurs' core, but he looked even more lost against the Pistons than he did in the final four games of last spring's second-round exit to the Lakers. Forget the comparisons to Jason Kidd, whom the Spurs couldn't pry away from the Nets two summers ago. At this point, San Antonio simply needs Parker to be as dependable as Avery Johnson was.
He's not.
Detroit
The Pistons still don't have what you would call a franchise player ... and yet they feel no need to seek one out. After one championship and a near-championship, who can say their way doesn't work?
Because what they do have, at worst, is one of the two finest starting fives in the league. Only the Suns' fivesome -- Steve Nash, Joe Johnson, Shawn Marion, Amare Stoudemire and the incoming Kurt Thomas -- can rival Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace as a unit.
Just about every other team in circulation dreams of fielding two long, mobile big men side-by-side like Detroit can with its Wallaces. Billups and Hamilton, meanwhile, now rank as automatic contenders in any League's Best Backcourt argument.
The best part of it all? The Wallace Brothers will be 31 next season. Antonio McDyess is the only other thirtysomething in Detroit's top six, and Dice looked reborn in the Finals. Should the Pistons' own personnel whiz (Joe Dumars) sign another vet of McDyess' caliber in the offseason to bolster the bench, as you'd expect, Miami will almost certainly be the No. 2 pick in the East no matter whom Pat Riley partners with Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade.
The only uncertainty is who'll be coaching the Pistons.
Sources close to the situation continue to insist that Pistons owner Bill Davidson is loathe to pardon Larry Brown for negotiating with Cleveland in the midst of a playoff run and for not shooting down links to the Knicks and Lakers more forcefully months before that. Even if Brown is cleared medically to coach next season, it's believed he has to do some serious fence-mending with Davidson to continue in Detroit.
Brown's salvation might be the absence of a proven candidate to replace him. Flip Saunders is the leading possibility, as the most accomplished coach known to be on the market, but Brown has set the coaching bar awfully high. Saunders is also being pursued hard by Milwaukee and lower expectations -- along with good compensation from the Bucks -- might prove to be more appealing than succeeding Brown. Or as Celtics coach Doc Rivers said recently: "It's never good to follow the legend. You want to be the guy who follows the guy who follows the legend."
Some insiders believe Dumars prefers Seattle's Nate McMillan anyway, but McMillan -- who's also receiving big-money interest from Portland -- is expected to stay with the only team he has ever known.
Which would leave the Pistons ... where? If Brown doesn't return, Michigan State's Tom Izzo makes more sense than anyone available, given his unquestioned coaching acumen and his stature in the area. Izzo, though, continues to say that he prefers to stay in the college game. If that stance holds, it's unclear where the Pistons would turn.
Yet this much we do know. Whoever takes over -- or if Brown returns -- Dumars will insist that developing Darko Milicic, Carlos Delfino and Carlos Arroyo becomes a Pistons priority. Brown has buried all three.
The Pistons obviously didn't need Milicic to become a powerhouse these past two seasons, but staying up there would be a lot of easier if they can starting getting some production out of a 7-footer who looks noticeably beefier than he did this time a year ago.
Larry Loyalists wonder how the Pistons would ever survive without his influence from the bench. He's still an X-and-O ace, but the Pistons also need a coach who makes it a goal to make an NBA player out of Milicic. The Pistons are already younger than the Spurs. Imagine their depth if Carlos, Carlos and Darko reach their potential.
Just one of the many variables that makes this exercise such a Pick 'Em.
Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here. Also, click here to send a question for possible use on ESPNEWS.
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
It took seven games to separate the two best teams in the league. It'll take a lot longer to settle the debate about which team has the better future.
That's because the answer might actually be: Both.
It's true. Extended glory is in the forecast in San Antonio and Detroit. These franchises share more than a team-first, defense-next mindset. They've also managed their rosters so adroitly that it'll be years before either one has to worry about a star player defecting in free agency.
So we hope you had no issues with seven games of Spurs vs. Pistons. Chances are it wasn't the last such Finals, as the following breakdowns suggest:
San Antonio
Tim Duncan is 29. Manu Ginobili turns 28 next month. They're not exactly Shaq and Kobe, but they're in their primes and quite happily married. They also share room to improve. Yikes.
AP
Any discussion of the future in San Antonio starts with No. 21.
"You can call it whatever you want - you guys are the press," said David Robinson, a courtside witness Thursday night when Duncan and Ginobili won their first title without him. "But I call it pretty good."
The mere presence of those two as a base, along with an even better tandem in the support positions -- coach Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford -- should keep the Spurs in contention for the next several seasons. Especially because Pop and R.C. have already proven that they can replenish a roster quickly.
Duncan is the only holdover from the 1999 title-winners and has since won two more rings. Ginobili, Tony Parker and Bruce Bowen, incidentally, are the only 2003 championship alumni besides No. 21.
"It's a great feeling," Duncan said. "In years past, we've lost six, seven, eight, nine guys in a year and rebuilt. I think we've really got a core here that we're in love with. . . . We have years to (grow together), and I think that's the greatest feeling in the world."
Three clear causes for concern were raised during this title run. It's four, actually, if you count the scary emergence of the Phoenix Suns' Amare Stoudemire, but let's focus on the three specific to the Spurs.
1. Parker's third straight postseason nosedive has to be worrisome, especially since his contract is nearly $15 million richer than Ginobili's.
2. No less troubling is the knowledge that Robert Horry can't have many more years left at his current playoff level. It's good and bad news that Horry, at nearly 35, was San Antonio's third-most dependable postseason performer. Or no worse than fourth behind defensive ace Bowen, who's 34 but sure doesn't look it.
3. It's also evident that the Spurs' perimeter shooting has dipped without Steve Kerr and Stephen Jackson, as Brent Barry alone couldn't fill the void.
Not that the Spurs will let us see any concern. For starters, they know that every team needs better shooters. If there were shooters to just go out and get, you know they would. It's one of the toughest voids to fill.
Buford, furthermore, recently strengthened his front line significantly with the trade-deadline acquisition of Nazr Mohammed, who looks far more promising as a partner for Duncan than Rasho Nesterovic. And because the Spurs didn't award Nesterovic an outrageous contract when they signed him to take the first swipe at succeeding Robinson, Buford will probably be able to move Nesterovic.
The backup option is waiving Nesterovic later this summer via the one-time mulligan teams are expected to receive -- soon to be known as the Allan Houston Rule -- as part of the new collective bargaining agreement. In that scenario, Nesterovic would receive the remaining $30 million-plus on his contract without any of that money counting in luxury-tax calculations.
Either way, Rasho's rotation spot is eventually going to Luis Scola, another Argentine second-round draft pick (like Manu) who will undoubtedly bolster the Spurs' frontcourt unit. The only uncertainty is whether San Antonio will be able to sign Scola in time for next season.
Scola is only 6-8, but he's considered the world's best power forward not playing in the NBA. He also seems to have a bit of the Ginobili Gene, winning pretty much everywhere he's been.
Yet if the price to extricate Scola from his Spanish League contract is too high, pursuing free-agent forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim is a strong possibility. San Antonio can't sign both, because one or the other is bound to command most or all of its $4.9 million mid-level exception. Sources close to Reef say he'd love to come to San Antonio after missing the playoffs in each of his nine seasons, but he's also likely to be chased hard by several East contenders: Miami, Washington, New Jersey and Cleveland, just to name four.
The challenge for the Spurs, then, is getting an early read on the feasbility of bringing Scola in. If complications ensure, they'll have to quickly proceed to outside free agents.
The down-the-road challenge, meanwhile, is assessing Parker's progress and potential. Going against the stronger Chauncey Billups was by no means easy, but Parker, after four seasons, can still seem shaky on the playoff stage.
The Frenchman still has plenty of time, at 23, to solidify his spot as the third mainstay of the Spurs' core, but he looked even more lost against the Pistons than he did in the final four games of last spring's second-round exit to the Lakers. Forget the comparisons to Jason Kidd, whom the Spurs couldn't pry away from the Nets two summers ago. At this point, San Antonio simply needs Parker to be as dependable as Avery Johnson was.
He's not.
Detroit
The Pistons still don't have what you would call a franchise player ... and yet they feel no need to seek one out. After one championship and a near-championship, who can say their way doesn't work?
Because what they do have, at worst, is one of the two finest starting fives in the league. Only the Suns' fivesome -- Steve Nash, Joe Johnson, Shawn Marion, Amare Stoudemire and the incoming Kurt Thomas -- can rival Chauncey Billups, Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace as a unit.
Just about every other team in circulation dreams of fielding two long, mobile big men side-by-side like Detroit can with its Wallaces. Billups and Hamilton, meanwhile, now rank as automatic contenders in any League's Best Backcourt argument.
The best part of it all? The Wallace Brothers will be 31 next season. Antonio McDyess is the only other thirtysomething in Detroit's top six, and Dice looked reborn in the Finals. Should the Pistons' own personnel whiz (Joe Dumars) sign another vet of McDyess' caliber in the offseason to bolster the bench, as you'd expect, Miami will almost certainly be the No. 2 pick in the East no matter whom Pat Riley partners with Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade.
The only uncertainty is who'll be coaching the Pistons.
Sources close to the situation continue to insist that Pistons owner Bill Davidson is loathe to pardon Larry Brown for negotiating with Cleveland in the midst of a playoff run and for not shooting down links to the Knicks and Lakers more forcefully months before that. Even if Brown is cleared medically to coach next season, it's believed he has to do some serious fence-mending with Davidson to continue in Detroit.
Brown's salvation might be the absence of a proven candidate to replace him. Flip Saunders is the leading possibility, as the most accomplished coach known to be on the market, but Brown has set the coaching bar awfully high. Saunders is also being pursued hard by Milwaukee and lower expectations -- along with good compensation from the Bucks -- might prove to be more appealing than succeeding Brown. Or as Celtics coach Doc Rivers said recently: "It's never good to follow the legend. You want to be the guy who follows the guy who follows the legend."
Some insiders believe Dumars prefers Seattle's Nate McMillan anyway, but McMillan -- who's also receiving big-money interest from Portland -- is expected to stay with the only team he has ever known.
Which would leave the Pistons ... where? If Brown doesn't return, Michigan State's Tom Izzo makes more sense than anyone available, given his unquestioned coaching acumen and his stature in the area. Izzo, though, continues to say that he prefers to stay in the college game. If that stance holds, it's unclear where the Pistons would turn.
Yet this much we do know. Whoever takes over -- or if Brown returns -- Dumars will insist that developing Darko Milicic, Carlos Delfino and Carlos Arroyo becomes a Pistons priority. Brown has buried all three.
The Pistons obviously didn't need Milicic to become a powerhouse these past two seasons, but staying up there would be a lot of easier if they can starting getting some production out of a 7-footer who looks noticeably beefier than he did this time a year ago.
Larry Loyalists wonder how the Pistons would ever survive without his influence from the bench. He's still an X-and-O ace, but the Pistons also need a coach who makes it a goal to make an NBA player out of Milicic. The Pistons are already younger than the Spurs. Imagine their depth if Carlos, Carlos and Darko reach their potential.
Just one of the many variables that makes this exercise such a Pick 'Em.
Marc Stein is the senior NBA writer for ESPN.com. To e-mail him, click here. Also, click here to send a question for possible use on ESPNEWS.